The New Humanitarian | 02/04/2024
GAZIANTEP, Turkey — For the first time in his 10 years in Türkiye, Muhammed Ramazan has a job with health insurance. He helps maintain machines that make cardboard spools at a factory in Gaziantep, a city known for its textile factories.
But since a series of earthquakes struck a year ago, claiming more than 55,000 lives in southeastern Türkiye and northern Syria, the insurance has been of little help. As one of roughly 1.8 million registered Syrians living in the earthquake zone in Türkiye, Ramazan and his family were last in line to receive aid, which was first distributed to Turkish citizens. Refugees, the vast majority of them Syrians, reported discrimination in relief efforts, including physical and verbal attacks, and evictions from temporary housing.
The epicentre of the first and strongest 7.9-magnitude earthquake on 6 February 2023 was only 30 kilometres from Gaziantep. The area where the quakes hit was home to 14 million people, which included some 2 million Syrian refugees. About 9 million were affected, and 3 million were displaced. Those who didn’t try to go back to Syria or move elsewhere now mostly live in shelters, which are poorly heated, lack sanitation, and are far away from basic services. Few receive cash assistance.
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Naomi Cohen | journalist 